As the sun sets at the Adelaide Botanic Garden, tens of thousands of bats fly from the neighboring Botanic Park.

Across the garden, flowing, colorful shapes begin to glow against the backdrop of winged silhouettes filling the dusky sky. Fifteen large-scale works by US-based and globally renowned artist Dale Chihuly are illuminated from within and without, interacting in strange and captivating ways with the now shadowy plant life around them.

Over the next seven months, this nocturnal pattern will repeat itself Chihuly in the Botanical Garden changes with the seasons. The exhibit can be viewed all day or a few evenings a week, and each visit is likely to be a different experience, with the quality of light changing, plants blooming, fruiting and dropping their leaves, and bats and other animals adapt habits to adapt to the season.

This element of transformation is intentional.

“We had a lot of conversations with the garden team about what to expect, and they shared a lot of photos with us,” says Britt Cornett, Chihuly Studio exhibitions manager.

“But of course you don’t know, do you? It’s the natural world that will do what it will do, even if a team of people take good care of it. And it’s something new and different being here in Australia in the southern hemisphere, you can’t wait to see how it develops over the seven months and over the course of the evening.”

Dale Chihuly, Blue crystal tower And Red reeds on tree trunks, Adelaide Botanic Gardens. © 2024 Chihuly Studio. Photo: Nathaniel Willson

This is the first time the works have been on display in Australia Adelaide is only the third city outside the US to host a Chihuly Garden cycle Exhibition.

Cornett and Chihuly’s entire team carefully selected the placement of the artwork throughout the Botanical Garden, creating a winding path that is easily readable regardless of the garden entrance used.

There are surprising connections. The diverse, wide-ranging, red-colored glass shapes of Chihuly Cattail and copper birch pipe provide a gentle, organic challenge to the heavily structured landscape of the economic garden. And the colorful artwork is full of works of art Fiori boat It almost feels like a mirage sitting on the water amidst the muted color palette of the First Creek Wetland.

One of two new site-responsive works from Chihuly, Chandelier made of glacier ice and lapis lazuliat the Adelaide Botanic Garden Palm House. © 2024 Chihuly Studio. Photo: Nathaniel Willson

“One of the things about a project like this is that it’s actually not just one team, but a whole bunch of small teams that are very good at what they do together,” says Michael Harvey, director of the Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium .

“They have a horticultural team who have responded to each of these works with a completely new planting scheme, and so you will see around the site that new garden beds have been created… and they have tried to use native Australian plantings.” possible because we wanted it to feel like the Australian response to Chihuly.”

In addition to collaboration and curation, two newly created site responsive works help with this Chihuly in the garden unique to its surroundings. The first, Chandelier made of glacier ice and lapis lazuliis an epic piece hanging from the ceiling of the Palm House. It both mimics and rejects the materials, shapes and colors of the restored Victorian glasshouse in which it is located.

The second new work, Jet and Crimson Fioriis featured as part of a paid exhibition of works in the Bicentennial Conservatory, the striking, curved conservatory that showcases the botanical garden’s lowland rainforest plants.

Jet and Crimson Fiori is inspired by the legendary Sturt desert pea.

“On our first site visit we learned about Sturt’s desert pea and how important it is to the region,” says Cornett. “We took that back and shared that information along with the rest of the website information.

“Dale was in the Hot Shop, working with the team and doing a lot of experimental new fiori work – which is the name for flower. And he kind of thought about this red and black palette and thought, “Let’s try something new.”

“There’s a new process where the hot glass is embossed to create textures and then this combination of red and black – we really haven’t done anything like that before.”

“He wasn’t sure if it would work and sat around with it for a while, then we recreated it full size in the studio and now it’s here.”

Dale Chihuly, Ethereal Spring Persians, Adelaide Botanic Gardens. © 2022 Chihuly Studio. Photo: Nathaniel Willson

The Chihuly installations are accompanied by a series of public programs ranging from live music to hospitality to scientific lectures. These create another level of cross-pollination that Harvey says is at the core of the Chihuly collaboration.

“I think it gives us the opportunity to attract a new audience to the garden, who will then, I hope, become lifelong garden visitors. But it’s also a chance to bring in some of these broader stories about the garden,” he says.

“Projects like this are a way to really explore the aesthetics of the garden, but also the spirituality of the garden.

“You can come here for the love of the garden and experience amazing art. But there will be people who are here for the art, and yet I was just watching us talking – people taking photos of the art, then turning their backs on the art and taking photos of the Malagasy collection (in the Palm House ). That’s exactly what we want to arouse among visitors – this broad interest.”

Dale Chihuly, sapphire star, Adelaide Botanic Garden (with the Palm House in the background). © 2010 Chihuly Studio. Photo: Nathaniel Willson

Chihuly in the Botanical Garden is open to the public out of September 27, 2024until April 29, 2025. Admission during the day is free. There are also Evening performances out of Thursday-Saturday (the ticket “Chihuly Nights”), and the Bicentennial Conservatory is hosting an accompanying exhibition entitled In full color: Dale Chihuly. Various public programs accompany the installations.

Read more about Dale Chihuly and his connections to the Adelaide glass art community in this article by John Neylon.